Advances in a variety of fields have created a demand for a many types of new materials. In particular, a variety of chemical powders can be used in many different processing contexts. This demand for chemical powders has resulted in the development of sophisticated techniques for the production of these powders. Some of these techniques involve flow reactions that result in the formation of the powders in a gaseous stream. To commercially exploit these particle production processes on a practical scale, the processes must be capable of efficiently producing large quantities of particles in a reasonable period of time. These large quantities of particles must be harvested from the gaseous stream in which they are produced.
One approach for the removal of particles from a gaseous stream has been developed to remove dust and other contaminants for air purification. Generally, the particulate levels for air purification are very low. The materials removed from the dirty air are waste materials for disposal. These systems are designed for continuous operation for significant periods of time.